Looking back: Tazio Nuvolari

FF today looks at a great grand prix racing driver before F1 era. Many say the greatest. The name is Tazio Nuvolari. Nuvolari is a legend in Italy. He started racing four wheelers only at the age of 31! He was known for virtuousity and courage which grew his legend.

Tazio Nuvolari was a man that really lived for racing. Neither bad equipment nor wounds from his uncountable crashes could keep him from driving flat out. Known to the Italians fans as the “Flying Mantuan” or the “Great Little Man”, Nuvolari was just 160 cm tall and he soon found out that he did not have the muscular strength to force the cars around the corners with the steering wheel. So instead he developed a technique where he put his car into a four wheel slide and then controlled the slide with the trottle. More here at Autosport.

“Tazio Nuvolari was not simply a racing driver. To Italy he became an idol, a demi-god, a legend, epitomising all that young Italy aspired to be; the man who ‘did the impossible’, not once but habitually, the David who slew the Goliaths in the great sport of motor racing. He was Il Maestro.”—Cyril Posthumus

A Video tribute to Flying Mantuan

Rare photographs of Flying Mantuan

1935 Nurburgring GP

1938 Donington GP

In 1976, Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla wrote the song Nuvolari celebrating his myth. The song is still very famous in Italy, and it’s part of Dalla’s album Automobili.